For Tuesday (December 7)

Your next phase of our Sandman project is pretty easy.

First, make sure that you've annotated all three of the pages that I posted to Flickr.  The goal of this annotation is to figure out how the language of comics organizes images and text.

Once, you finished your annotations, you need to post your annotated images to the class wiki.  To do this, follow the instructions on our image annotation page.  Good luck!

Thursday (December 2)

On Thursday, we'll meet in the Humanities Mac Computer lab (H 407). Once we get comfortable there, we'll start working on our Sandman annotation project. Review the project page on our wiki. If you want to get a head start on things, try creating your Flickr account before class.

Tuesday (November 30)

Welcome back from vacation!

We'll start our discussion of The Sandman: Preludes and Nocturnes on Tuesday.

Semiotic Analysis

For Tuesday (November 16), you'll want to hand in your semiotic analysis exercise.  Here's how you do it:

1) copy your 50 or so lines from Chapter 11 of Wuthering Heights into a new document.   You can either find the text at gutenberg.org or on the page I've created here on our blog.

2) read through your excerpt carefully - - circling, underlining, or highlighting all of the semiotically significant terms or phrases.

3) on a separate sheet of paper, list the binary oppositions that you find in the text.  You should quote or cite the language of the text.  If the opposite term in the opposition is not "in" the text - - put brackets around it.  For instance, "the dismal house" vs. [Thrushcross Grange], etc.  Your goal is to analyze as closely as possible how the text is structured or organized around binary oppositions.

4) on a separate sheet or sheets of paper, you should reflect and comment on the oppositions that you discover.  What patterns do you see?  How do the oppositions in this particular, limited text reflect "larger" binary oppositions that structure the novel? (e.g. Wuthering Heights vs. Thrushcross Grange, gypsy vs. gentleman, wild vs. domesticated, etc.)

Make sure you work is typed up.  Be sure to include your name and date on the pages.  Staple all the sheets together.  Enjoy!

For Thursday (November 4)

Finish Volume I of Wuthering Heights.

Don't forget our semiotic analysis of part 2 of Lockwood's nightmare.  You can find the text here.  No need to write paragraphs etc.  Just construct a table or list of binary oppositions.

For Thursday (October 28) and more

For Thursday, read the first 3 chapters of Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights.

Also, take a look at the final Law and Order assignment.

And, because I mentioned it in class - - here's a sample of the very cool whiteboarding that the Royal Society of Arts has been producing and distributing:

For Tuesday (October 26)

Read the Fiske chapter on "Character Reading"(see below). Also, be sure to finish analyzing your second Law and Order episode.

Open publication - Free publishing - More television

For Thursday (10/21)

First, make sure that you've finished up your Proppian analysis of your second Law and Order episode. You'll collaborate on the wiki page, e.g. you and your comrades should work together via the wiki page to elaborate the episode's sequence of narrative functions, dramatis personnae, oppositions, and plot summary.

Second, read both the Saussure piece and Daniel Chandler's Semiotics for Beginners.  We'll discuss these two pieces in class.

For Tuesday (October 18)

By now you should have completed the following for at least one episode of Law and Order: on the wiki page for that episode, you and your comrades should have created a plot summary, a quick outline of dramatis personnae and oppositions, and a "Proppian" sequence of narrative functions. Your page should be organized with the sequence of narrative functions at the top, separated by a horizontal line from the section on dramatis personnae and oppositions, separated by a horizontal line from the plot summary.

(It might also be helpful to insert a table of contents into your wiki page. To do this: first, highlight each section heading (narrative sequence, dramatis personnae/oppositions, plot summery) and under the "Format" menu click on "Heading." This will turn each section title into a heading. Next, go to the "Insert" menu and click on "Table of Contents." If you've properly formatted each section title as a "Heading" - - a table of contents box will appear on your page. You can position this box wherever you like - - typically the upper-right hand corner of the page. When you mouse over or click the box, a small menu bar appears below it. It's often helpful to turn "On" the text wrap function so that page text flows around your table of contents.)

For Tuesday (October 12)

Be sure to download the first episode of Law & Order, Season 1 - Law & Order and two other episodes of your choice. Check the class wiki before you download your two episodes.

Watch "Prescription for Death" and do a plot summary. (You might also find it helpful to look at the "narrative grammar" of the Western, as outlined by Will Wright.)

Also, don't forget our extra credit assignment on Raymond Carver.

For Tuesday (October 5)

We'll be reading Hawthorne's short story, "Young Goodman Brown." As you read the story, try to create a plot summary. We'll see if we can match Hawthorne's narrative "grammar" with the fairy-tale grammar outlined by Propp.

Also, you should begin browsing through Law & Order, Season 1 - Law & Order on iTunes to select the two episodes you want to analyze. (You might as well download the first episode - - Law & Order, Season 1 - Law & Order - - as we'll be talking about this episode together in class.) Once you've selected a couple of episodes, be sure to sign up for them on our class wiki.

For Thursday (September 30)

Your goal for Thursday is to do a "Proppian" analysis of the Russian fairy tale that I distributed in class.

First, read through the fairy tale. Next, consult the list of Propp's 31 narrative functions. (If you're a little fuzzy about what they mean - - try checking our class notes.) Now return to the fairy tale.

List the Proppian functions you can find in the fairy tale. Use a numbered list with the title of the function, eg. "1. Absententation: the father goes off somewhere," etc.

You should come to class with a list of functions discovered in the fairy tale.

For Thursday (September 23)

Phase II of the Carver project, which means:

1) move your individual discussion questions to a separate page ("under" the main story page) and put your three group discussion questions on your main story page;

2) choose at least two stories (besides your own) from our list ("The Bath," "Mr. Coffee and Mr. Fixit," "So Much Water So Close to Home," "A Serious Talk," "Popular Mechanics," "I Could See the Smallest Things," or "Tell the Women We’re Going") and read them;

3) go to the story page for your two stories and answer the discussion questions (n.b. try to keep track of how many people have answered the discussion questions - - if eight of your comrades have already answered the questions, move on to another set) in a paragraph of two for each one;

4) come to class on Thursday prepared to discuss the stories.

For Thursday (Sept. 16)

For Thursday, we'll read Ray Carver's short story, "What We Talk about When We Talk about Love."

Also, be sure to choose your story from the Carver collection - - the story that you want to own. You should choose from one of the following stories: "The Bath," "Mr. Coffee and Mr. Fixit," "So Much Water So Close to Home," "A Serious Talk," "Popular Mechanics," "I Could See the Smallest Things," or "Tell the Women We’re Going."

Finally, since some of you have indicated some confusion about what your Joyce annotations should look like, I've added an example to the Joyce assignment page.

For Tuesday (September 14)

For Tuesday, we'll discuss Raymond Carver's story, "Why Don't You Dance?"

Don't forget - - you have an assignment on Joyce's Dubliners due for Thursday, Septbember 16.

And, it's always worthwhile to check on our class notes and the excellent work of your comrades!

Joyce Assignment

I mentioned our final assignment for Joyce. You can find it here on the class wiki. It's due: Thursday, September 16.

Don't forget: for tomorrow, Thursday, September 9, we'll start reading the Carver collection - - let's begin with the story "Viewfinder."

For Tuesday (Sept. 7)

Instead of starting the Carver collection, we'll read one more Joyce short story from Dubliners - - "An Encounter." Be sure that you get the Carver collection by Thursday. Also, nota bene, let's start our class discussion with the short story - - "Viewfinder."

Urgent: for Tursday (9/2)

Important: syllabus change. We'll be reading Joyce's "Araby" instead of "The Dead."

For Tuesday (8/31)

For Tuesday:

1) be sure to read Joyce's "Two Gallants"

2) be sure that you've finished your personal wiki home page

3) and, be sure that you check out Ginger's most excellent class notes.

For Thursday (August 24)

Don't forget the several items for Thursday:

1) read, download, and print the introduction to characterization here;

2) create your wiki home page, after creating your (sfsu.edu - based) google account;

3) review the "class notes" procedures here - - I will ask for a scribe/griot/note-taker volunteer at the beginning of class.

For Thursday (August 24)

Welcome to Junior Seminar

This is our class blog. I'll post announcements, assignments, updates, items of interest, and a variety of other items here. Be sure to check in often!